The fleet sailed in the established direction and arrived at the southern port of Iba Island an hour later.
Grand Iba is a British colony in the Caribbean. After the Chinese hired British ships to transport Chinese workers, the British promised to open colonial ports in the Caribbean for the transport fleet to dock and repair, and did not charge the transport fleet docking fees.
The exemption of parking fees is a side benefit given by the British to the transaction, and the Chinese will certainly not refuse if they can have an expense left.
Iba Grande Island is sparsely populated. Due to the large-scale transportation of Chinese workers in Rio Grande do Sul, the island has experienced a certain population growth.
Near the port, a group of black free people and Indians, under the command of the British, pulled the reins and fixed the anchor points of the ship. Groups of Chinese workers who had their braids cut off queued up to disembark and went to the place designated by the Chinese soldiers for repairs.
After all the Chinese workers disembarked, Chen Sen and Hou Taiyuan left some soldiers on the ship to keep watch before finally stepping off the ship.
There were originally no buildings in the southern port of Great Inagua. However, some time ago, more than ten free Chinese came to the island. They cut down the small trees on the island and quickly built two simple wooden houses to entertain sailors.
transport fleet.
After the Opium War, the 200-year-old maritime ban policy was abolished in the face of the opposition of the great powers. In the following more than 100 years, Chinese people, mainly working people in the southeastern coastal provinces, went abroad to make a living on a large scale, with an average of 100,000 people going abroad every year.
More than 100,000 people have traveled abroad, with more than 10 million people traveling abroad, and their footprints have spread all over the world, forming a pattern of "wherever there is sea water, there are overseas Chinese".
Chinese workers in North America are mainly located in the United States, and there are also some Chinese workers in Canada.
In February 1865, the first batch of Chinese workers hired by the Americans went to the railway construction site. The hard work of the Chinese workers was recognized by the Americans. In the next few years, the Americans recruited Chinese workers from the mainland on a large scale to transport fleets in Cuba.
As of the beginning of the war, there were approximately 30,000 Chinese workers in the United States, more than 90% of whom worked on railroad construction sites and gold mining sites.
Compared with the Chinese workers in Cuba and Peru who were slaves, the situation of Chinese workers in the United States was slightly better. Some Chinese workers who completed the labor agreement were freed and began to move around the Americas as free people.
In Peru, a South American state, the number of Chinese workers in Cuba is much higher than that in the United States. It is relatively close to Rio Grande do Sul, and due to the concentrated distribution of local Chinese workers, the first two batches of Chinese workers were introduced in Peru and Cuba.
The Pacific Railway project in the United States will be completed next year. Before that, they will not allow Chinese workers to leave. Therefore, if they want to introduce Chinese workers from the United States, they will have to wait until next year.
The dozen or so new free Chinese who arrived on Great Inaba Island were not from the North American continent, but from other islands under the jurisdiction of the British.
The main labor force in Britain's Caribbean colonies were blacks and Indians, with Chinese accounting for only a small part.
The leader of more than a dozen Chinese people is a middle-aged man named Liang Xing, who is about forty years old. He came to the British Caribbean colony of Jamaica more than ten years ago to make a living. After hard work, he earned a substantial family fortune.
, and married a woman of mixed white and Indian descent as his wife.
His family, children and property were all in Jamaica. Therefore, after hearing that the Chinese were establishing a country in Rio Grande do Sul, Liang Xing did not make up his mind to immigrate to Rio Grande do Sul. Instead, he took advantage of the opportunity of the transport fleet to anchor in the Great Inagua Island.
While opening a small business inn to gain new income, he also explored the inside information of Rio Grande do Sul.
"Guixin, don't be too busy fiddling with your hair-shaving tools. Come over and help me with the accounting."
Liang Xing checked the goods in the store and shouted outside.
"Dong Liang's family, I'll be here right away."
The man outside said that he had arranged the shaving items and came limping over holding on to his right leg.
Liang Xing took an abacus and calculated the accounts. When he saw the man walking in, he said: "Old Chen, I think you are busy with your work. Didn't you see that the Chinese workers outside are all bald? Their braids have been cut off.
If your hair is gone and you don’t have braids, who will come to you to shave your head?”
"This is not the mainland. Even if you are a pig, you dare to cut off your braids. But the people are much more courageous than when the Taiping Army revolted."
The man touched his bare head, looked at the Chinese workers outside, and sighed.
"We have settled down on an island occupied by the British, and we don't have to worry about the court's investigation. Why do we still have ugly braids?"
"Yeah, it's better to be here. If you don't have braids in mainland China, you'll be beheaded!"
As he spoke, the man observed Liang Xing's expression and found that there was nothing strange on his face. He asked tentatively: "I heard that the leader of the newly established Rio Grande do Sul is the son of Li Shixian, the servant king of the Kingdom of Heaven. Brother Liang, have you ever thought about that?
While trying to make a living.”
"Shaggy people let men and women live separately. If I go to Rio Grande do Sul, what will happen to Anna and Mary?"
Liang Xing was pounding the abacus without looking back.
"The Kingdom of Heaven will not implement separate camps for men and women after it establishes its capital in Tianjing. Those rumors outside are all Tatars' slander against the Kingdom of Heaven. Brother Liang, please don't believe it."
The man spoke excitedly, and took a step forward with his inconvenient left leg, revealing a piece of wood under the clothes hanger. It turned out that the man's right leg was a prosthetic leg made of wood.
"Brother Chen refuses to talk about his past, so I can't ask more questions. But I think Brother Chen must have had some relationship with the Taiping Army before, otherwise he wouldn't be so excited. Is what I said right?"
Liang Xing put down the abacus in his hand and looked at the man with his eyes.
The man was stared at by Liang Xing, as if he had a feeling of being seen through. Finally he gritted his teeth and said: "Yes, I have joined the Taiping Army before. In a battle, my leg was injured and amputated. In order to avoid the Tatar raids, I moved from Hong Kong to
Come to Jamaica.”
After telling his true identity, the man felt much more relaxed: "Brother Liang treats his younger brother sincerely. My younger brother should not have hidden anything from his elder brother, but the Kingdom of Heaven failed and hundreds of thousands of brothers were brutally killed. Brother Zhan really doesn't want to mention the sad past.
Please forgive me, brother."
After the man finished speaking, he suddenly felt someone watching him from behind. He turned around and saw a familiar yet unfamiliar person standing five or six meters away.
"Brother Ah Chen! Is that you?"
"Hou Wu." The man subconsciously called out a name.
"Brother Chen, it's really you, you're still alive!" The people outside the store looked excited. They ran to the man's side in a few steps, held his hands, and said happily: "Brother Chen, I am Hou Wu, Hou Wu.
Taiyuan, I haven’t seen you since the fall of Tianjing, I thought you also died in Tianjing City!”
Hou Taiyuan was particularly excited to meet old friends.
"Brother Achen, the Crown Prince and the Heavenly Kingdom brothers have established a country in Rio Grande do Sul. From now on, the Heavenly Kingdom brothers no longer have to live the hard life of hiding around and wandering overseas."
"Okay, okay! I will go with you to see the Crown Prince!" The man's eyes were red and he said three good words in a row. However, after he finished saying these words, his expression suddenly became decadent.
Hou Taiyuan noticed the change in his mood and was about to persuade him. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the right leg of the elder brother he used to admire turned out to be a prosthetic leg.
"Brother Ah Chen, why is your right leg missing?"
"When the Kingdom of Heaven fell, I led a group of brothers to cover the retreat of the young King of Heaven. My right leg was injured in the battle with the pursuing Tatar soldiers. Later, I had my right leg amputated as I had no other choice."
The man shook his head and looked at Hou Taiyuan as if he was resigned to his fate and said: "Xiao Wu, I am no longer the personal bodyguard of His Highness Dongwang, I am just a useless useless person.
Just go away and pretend we have never met."
"Brother Ah Chen, no matter what you become, you are still the elder brother I admire in Hou Wu. If you don't recognize me as your brother, I will keep kneeling in front of you!"
Ah Chen, who was brave and good at fighting in the Kingdom of Heaven, has become a disabled man who is struggling to survive. Hou Taiyuan can understand the pain in Chen Xinggui's heart, but it is precisely because he knows the harm of losing his right leg to a warrior that he cannot continue to watch his former eldest brother decadent.
Hou Taiyuan knelt straight in front of Chen Xingui, looking at him sincerely.
"Hou Wu, you...you are forcing me."
Chen Xingui looked at Hou Taiyuan who was kneeling stubbornly on the ground with a complicated expression.
"You are an elder in the Kingdom of Heaven. I would like to thank you and call you Brother Chen." When the two were in a stalemate, Chen Sen stepped forward.
He advised: "Brother Chen lost his right leg to cover the retreat of the young King of Heaven. This is something worthy of the respect of every soldier of the Kingdom of Heaven. Brother Chen's right leg was lost for the Kingdom of Heaven, and he is a meritorious official of the Kingdom of Heaven."
Nowadays, there are only one brother in the Kingdom of Heaven, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince sincerely hopes to reunite heroes of the Kingdom of Heaven like Brother Chen to create a great cause together. At this critical period of employment in South America, Brother Chen must not utter depressing words."
"Brother's kindness, Chen, appreciates it, but my current body cannot help His Royal Highness the Prince!"
Chen Xingui was a little moved by Chen Sen's persuasion, but thinking of her current appearance, she refused in frustration.
"Brother Chen is wrong.
Brothers in the Kingdom of Heaven work together to create a great cause. You don't have to be the first to charge. You have a disease in your right leg and cannot go into battle to kill the enemy, but you can teach your brothers combat skills.
Ah Chen Chen Guixin's kung fu and boxing skills are famous in the Kingdom of Heaven. Even if one leg is missing, you can still teach batches of outstanding soldiers and turn them into new Ah Chen one by one to fight for our new country."
"Yes, Brother Chen, His Highness the Crown Prince is different from the previous King of Heaven. He treats his brothers sincerely. During the journey of thousands of miles, the Crown Prince, the injured and disabled brother, did not leave any one behind. Instead, he sent a special force to escort them as they marched in.
Now, under the arrangement of the Crown Prince, some of the injured and disabled brothers have become civilian officials to manage local affairs, some have become instructors, helping the army train new recruits, and there is an even more powerful one, Lieutenant Colonel He Yanliang, who was originally a member of the Broadsword Team.
A second lieutenant who later had his left hand amputated entered the wounded camp. Now he has not only returned to the field army, but has been promoted four levels in a row.
Brother Chen, this is what I heard from my brothers, I won’t lie to you."
"Is everything you said true?"
"It's all true. If it's a lie, I'll take my head off and give it to my brother."
"Hou Wu, I believe you. His Highness the Crown Prince treats the brothers from Heaven sincerely. Even if I, Ah Chen, lose a leg, I will not hold him back!"